The girl that no one knew
by ChiTora
Summary: "Armin," she said suddenly, "Do you think that I'm a coward?" A set of stories written from Armin's perspective, focusing more on Annie
1. Dilemma

It had felt a lot worse than he had been expecting. The moment he had heard Commander Erwin's opening remarks, he was immediately contemplating the reasons for such bold words. However - although he did not admit it, even to himself - Armin had felt a touch of hope stemming from the positive information the Commander had provided, it made him think that others would be persuaded to join. He supposed it was just his naïvety and inexperience that had led him to indulge in such foolish thoughts. In Armin's mind, the mass of trainees leaving had seemed like a flood. It had been a struggle not to just turn around, to see the expressions on the leaving faces. It would have been the path to utter despair. Despite the thoughts that had raced through his head, Armin hadn't wavered in his determination. He hadn't lost sight of what was at stake.

Armin had stayed behind after the ceremony, near the stage where the induction had taken place. Mikasa had stayed with him for a little while, but she had now left along with the other. It was a wonderful night, one of the first that Armin had the pleasure of seeing ever since his training as a soldier had begun. It was a full moon and the night was peaceful and still. The brackets on the stage burnt less fiercely now, casting a soft incandescence within small radius of the stage. The events of the day had caught up with him now, as he was finally able to take his mind off the Survey Corps, he had believe in the Commander's plan no matter how daunting a task it seemed.

He was snapped out of his thoughts by the nearby sound of footfall, breaking the silence. Armin had either seen or heard everyone go back inside, nobody should have been outside so late. Much to Armin's dismay, he saw Annie appear from behind the courtyard wall. Before he could move out of her line of sight, she turned to look straight at him. He felt compelled to move towards her, even though he felt flustered and guilty about what he had seen and heard earlier that same day. "Hey Annie, you're out late", he remarked with a small smile.

"I could say the same to you"

"I just felt like being alone for a while..." he said quietly, avoiding her gaze.

"So did I," she replied, just as quietly. There was a few seconds pause between the two of them in which Armin took the time to study her face. Although she still had her signature, unsmiling look, she looked even gloomier than usual. Her eyes were distant and vague, while the corners of her mouth were twisted into a grimace. Maybe it was something to do with the enrollment ceremony. Maybe it was because of what Armin thought might be true. Unexpectedly, Annie was the first one to speak again, "I presume you enrolled into the Survey Corps then?" It sounded more like a statement than a question, like she already knew Armin's answer.

"Yes," he replied shortly "So you've been drafted into the Military Police?" Again the answer was a given for the pair of them. Another moment of silence. He took that to mean yes.

"Armin," she said suddenly, "Do you think that I'm a coward?" Armin was taken aback by Annie's sudden forwardness, in contrast to her usual quiet self.

"No... no, I don't," he started tentatively. "Anybody who values their life is intelligent to do so, the life of a soldier is dangerous. I don't blame you for choosing the Military Police."

"Oh. Well that's good, because I am only doing this to save my own skin. I'm not a pawn who'll be ordered to their death." she replied indifferently.

"Annie, if you think that way then why did you choose to become a soldier at all?" he asked curiously, "Why put that unnecessary risk on your life at all? You saw what happened in Trost."

"Isn't it obvious?" She said bluntly, "I want a better quality of life."

"Your sounding like Jean used to." Annie remained silent and stoic in her expression. The light from the brackets had all but vanished by then, only the moon provided the light which silhouetted the two figures in the standing opposite each other in the night.

"Why do _you _fight Armin? You said you would die if you were ordered to do so. Did you mean it?". Armin hesitated before speaking again.

"I only know what's at stake. If we don't fight we'll never break free of these walls. The titans will eventually get through again, they can't last forever. Take what happened in Trost, for example. If it wasn't for Eren we would all be dead now."

"Wasn't it you who theorized that plan?" She said, the faintest whisper of a smile playing at her lips.

"Yes, but without Eren's titan power we never would have been able to plug the hole in the wall anyway," he replied thoughtfully. He suddenly became aware of what he was doing and remembered why he had been so wary of Annie after their gear check-up. Annie must have noticed a change in his expression.

"Something bothering you?" she asked, sounding almost sympathetic in tone. Strange, this was not the Annie Leonhardt that Armin knew.

"No, I was just thinking about the future", Armin lied shakily. Before he could say anything else to end any continued conversation Annie spoke up for the third time that night.

"Armin, I wanted to ask you a favour..." Annie trailed off, seemingly unsure of what to say. "Were you in same squad as Mina?" If Armin was surprised before, it was nothing compared to the shock he felt now. He had never seen Annie display any sort of worry for anybody before. At least, outside of himself that was. After his initial shock, the gravity of what his answer had to be crushed him. "Yes, Mina was in my squad, but-" Annie cut him off before he could finish. "How did she die?" Annie's voice was now monotone and hollow, her face stony and facing downwards. Armin picked his next words very carefully. "She died trying to protect..." he faltered, with a deep sigh he finished, "trying to protect Eren and me." He finished, pausing to let Annie register what he had said.

"Thank you for telling me, Armin" Annie's face was unreadable. Anything that could have given Armin a clue to what she was feeling was drawn in. Armin made to leave, he felt bad enough as it was without Annie about to break down in front of him. He was stopped by Annie grabbing his arm gently, but firmly, as if she didn't want him to leave. "Armin, promise me one thing?" she said softly. She appeared to be calm and steady once again. "Of course, anything for you, " Armin said warmly.  
"Just.. stay safe. Okay?"  
Armin shook his head slightly in disbelief. Throughout their training, she had always been the silent one, the apathetic one. Tonight, she had shown herself to be just as human as the rest of them. "I will, Annie. Don't worry, I know we'll meet again someday."  
"Someday..." She whispered longingly. "Until then. Goodbye, Armin Arlert."  
"Till we meet again, Annie Leonhardt".

Armin watched her as she walked back to her barracks, still stunned by her change of character. As she disappeared from his sight, he turned to head back. His head had been cleared of his all his earlier worries.

_For the girl who had joined the military police, however, the turmoil her mind was trapped in seemed never-ending._


	2. Caring

_**AUTHOR NOTES: This chapter and the next are going to be set in the same timeline as the first but before it in terms of chronological order. This chapter is set off-screen during the second OVA. The chapters will all follow the same style. Armin's third person POV, but focusing on Annie.**_

* * *

Despite his physical state, Armin felt very much at peace. It had been embarrassing to have ended up in a cast without the involvement of an aggressor, or even a potentially dangerous stimulus within the vicinity. His injury also caused a great deal of inconvenience to his two fellow trainees. On second thoughts, Armin decided it was actually only one of his teammates who was disrupted by being down a person. It was a beautiful afternoon outside, a warm rays of bright light filtered into Armin's room, spreading across the bed upon which he lay, tickling his hair and face. The air tasted crisp and fresh and the cheerful sounds of children playing in the streets below drifted up to Armin's ears. The sounds made him remember Shiganshina. Before it had been taken over by hell.

After Jean and Annie had escorted Armin to the medical wing and made sure that he was al-right, they had both left. Jean had sounded adamant in his plan to steal some meat from the officers' pantry and had left with haste after Annie and Armin had turned down his request for help. Annie had stayed with him a while longer but had eventually left as well, although Armin had no idea where to. Annie was certainly an enigma to Armin. She was the quietest of all the trainees in the 104th, and she rarely made an effort to interact or co-operate in team exercises. There would always be a sullen look on her face and she acted as if everything around her was almost distasteful. Upon their meeting two years ago, he had somehow managed to strike up a friendship her. It was still one of his biggest accomplishments to date. At least, in his opinion. While Eren was perfectly happy for Armin to be socializing more with other trainees, Mikasa was not. She had been instantly suspicious of Annie from day one, and it was clear that she would rather have Armin not talk to Annie. Armin knew that she thought ill of Annie, even though she had never actually voiced her opinion. It was a two-way street, however, as Annie seemed to be just as distrusting of Mikasa as she was of her. In spite of all of this it seemed that the person he talked to most, outside of Eren and Mikasa was Annie. Even though Annie never talked much in their conversations, he was still pleasantly surprised to see that every time he attempted to speak with her, she would listen and wait. This was the biggest mystery to Armin. How she always seemed so distant from others, never talked to anybody and practically went out of her way to avoid people yet she would always be there to listen to him.

Armin had been slowly drifting into the soft embrace of sleep when he heard the door to his room creak open slowly and the sound of footsteps across the wooden floor. His eyes flickered open as he adjusted to the brightness of the room and saw a small, slim figure framed in the sunshine. The figure seemed to be holding a tray with a bowl containing a steaming broth with a thick roll of bread on the side. As Armin saw who the person was, he was amazed to see the short blonde hair tied up in a bun and the familiar thin lips pressed into a flat smile. It was Annie.

"I brought you some food, " she said, snapping him from his reverie.

"Oh, um, thanks, Annie" mumbled Armin, gratefully. She watched him carefully as he propped himself up onto his elbows.

"Here, this will help," she said as she moved his pillows into an upright position against the headboard. Armin smiled warmly at her as she continued to watch him with a blank expression. Although he talked to Annie quite a lot, he had never seen her do something to show any compassion towards anyone, not to say that she acted indifferently towards him, only that he couldn't have imagined she would bring him food.

"Don't you have,uh... anything to take care of?" Armin asked uncertainly before he quickly realised the ineptitude of his words. "Sorry. What I meant to say was you didn't have to do this for me," he said hastily. Annie brushed her falling hair back across her face.

"We are on a team, Armin. Besides, I can't cook." She said as if it was obvious.

"Yeah, right..." Armin said, turning his head back down to the tray before him. He broke off a piece of his bread, and then paused, thinking hard. Noticing his stillness, Annie asked wearily,

"You hit your leg pretty hard back there, are you feeling any better?" Armin gave an awkward grin and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. He still wasn't over how easily he had fallen, both metaphorically and physically.

"Yeah, I'm feeling a lot better, thanks. Shouldn't you be helping Jean now anyway? Come to think of it, why aren't you helping him? You both want to get into the military police, right?"

"We may both have the same goal, but that doesn't mean we have to take the same road to get there." Armin was impressed by her unusually high moral ground. Most people wouldn't think twice about a thing such as theft of such an expensive and rare food, especially if it helped them to eventually live within the luxury and safety of Wall Sina.

"That's really honourable of you, Annie," he said appreciatively. "So if you don't believe in getting into the Military Police this way, then why bother with the competition at all?" Armin inquired quizzically. She shrugged nonchalantly.

"Who knows," she said, turning her head towards the window. "Maybe because we were already in a team together?" she said slowly, turning back to face him. "You should eat, I brought it up hot for a reason," she reminded him, nodding her head towards the bowl.

"Oh, of course," he said, dipping the bread into the bowl of broth. For the next few minutes they both sat in silence as Armin ate, methodically finishing both the bread and the broth. Throughout the course of these few minutes, Armin noticed how Annie watched him, it reminded him of the way a certain scarf-wearing girl would always look at her brother. Just as Armin had finished eating, a thought occurred to him and he seemed to un-pause from where their conversation had left off.

"Even if you wanted to see this whole thing through, you said yourself you can't cook. Doesn't that mean you wouldn't have been able to help in the first place?" he asked meaningfully.

"I guess you're right, then maybe I just wanted something to do so I wouldn't get bored," she said with a note of apprehension in her voice.

"Now you're just clutching at straws, Annie. There was plenty of work to do for the other trainees while we were out-of-town inside the forest." Armin was fixed upon finding out Annie's true intentions for going with Jean and him.

"Tch... You're more persistent than I first thought." She said, sounding annoyed but with a hint of a smile.

"Would you find it hard to believe me If I said I just wanted someone to talk to, someone who actually thinks of me as a friend?" The words came flowing steadily from her mouth and she had an accusing tone to her voice. Annie was the one who had put pressure on Armin instead.

"That I just wanted to see if my friend was feeling better and bring him some food. Is that really so unbelievable for you?" She asked in disbelief. Her normally pale cheeks were now a light shade of pink. To Armin's wonder, he felt relieved with her answer. It had proven to him what he had always believed about Annie. That she really was his friend, that she really did care about him.

"No... Of course not, Annie. I've just never seen you act like this before," he said teasingly. Annie was quick to retort.

"Don't push your luck, Armin. Don't expect me to act sweet and caring from now on. That isn't me."

"Well, for what it's worth, I really like this Annie," he said thoughtfully. The light was dimming now and the shadows were fading into the approaching darkness.

"Like I said, don't expect this to happen all the time," she replied with a rare smile. "Come on, you're going to have to be the one to cook with Jean" With the help of Annie and the crutches left on his bedside, Armin was able to get into a steady position on his feet. The light had all but faded now and the shadows were melting into the quickly approaching darkness. As they left the room to go down to the kitchens, Armin realised something. Although he still knew very little about Annie and why she acted how she did, he was content in the knowledge that he mattered to her.

_And the girl who was walking a few steps ahead of him smiled internally at the very same thought._


End file.
